Pictures: The landmark Hotel Chamberlin burns to the ground in a catastrophic March 7, 1920 fire

CaptionThe Hotel Chamberlin topples in an inferno

Courtesy of the Hampton History Museum

The blaze broke out just before dinner on Sunday, March 7, 1920, then spread so quickly that firefighters arrived to find what the Daily Press reported as "a roaring inferno."

The blaze broke out just before dinner on Sunday, March 7, 1920, then spread so quickly that firefighters arrived to find what the Daily Press reported as "a roaring inferno." (Courtesy of the Hampton History Museum)

This panoramic turn-of-the-century portrait of Old Point Comfort shows the massive resort created by the first Chamberlin Hotel, at left, and the older Hygeia Hotel, which measured more than 700 yards long.

This panoramic turn-of-the-century portrait of Old Point Comfort shows the massive resort created by the first Chamberlin Hotel, at left, and the older Hygeia Hotel, which measured more than 700 yards long. (Courtesy of the Hampton History Museum)

When the first flames erupted inside the original Hotel Chamberlin late on the afternoon of March 7, 1920, many of the 400 guests at the posh Old Point Comfort resort were dressing for dinner. Though all escaped the blaze along with hundreds of employees, firefighters arrived at the scene to find the immense structure enveloped in "a roaring inferno." Some 20,000 spectators watched as the flames raged all night, leaving the landmark in smoldering ruins and inflicting a property loss estimated at $43 million in 2014 dollars. Click here to find more Hampton Roads History photo galleries. -- Mark St. John Erickson